Spire Institute aspires to reach new heights

It's a very big month for Spire Institute, the massive athletic complex in Geneva.Last week, the multi-sport training facility hosted the Big East men's and women's indoor track and field championships.This week, the Big Ten (men's and women's indoor track and field) and Atlantic 10 (men's and women's swimming and diving) are hosting championship events.The latter two will be sandwiched by what is expected to be the biggest of all — an announcement Friday morning involving the United States Olympic Committee.Spire officials won't give specifics for the press conference, which will be held Friday at 10 a.m., but a news release says it will be a joint announcement with Spire, the USOC and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission.Alicia McConnell, the USOC's director of training sites and community partnerships, will be on hand, as will Duffy Mahoney, the director of high-performance programs for USA Track and Field.

The Plain Dealerreported last September that two USOC officials — chairman Larry Probst and CEO Scott Blackmon — visited Spire and were eyeing the state-of-the-art facility as a potential training and competition venue.That appears to be the case now, though the specifics won't be given until Friday.Spire has had its share of financial problems — see here and here — but, after an initial delay, work was completed last fall on the 293,000-square-foot aquatics center.The institute is already a U.S. Paralympics training site.On Friday, it will be, in some way, officially partnered with the Olympics.It seems fitting, then, that two U.S. Olympic gold medalists affiliated with Spire — former track star Michael Johnson and former swimming standout Diana Munz — will also be on hand for Friday's announcement.

Chris Fedor — the writer

As is the case with anything involving the former co-host of The Hooligans, an afternoon drive show on WKNR, it moved the needle. Fedor's mock draft, as of Tuesday morning, had almost 270 comments.Fedor told Crain's he will write a mock draft every two weeks for The Plain Dealer's website, leading up to the real thing on April 25.He said he has had “conversations” with other stations about future employment, but there is “nothing firm” to report.“I love radio and miss it like crazy,” Fedor said.He wouldn't say if one of the stations with which he has spoken is WKNR's primary competition for sports talk fans, WKRK-FM, 92.3.You can follow me on Twitter for sports information and analysis.

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